tonight on "20/20" -- terror on the tresle. the movie you'll never see, because a young woman died making it. but you'll see the footage tonight. >> i remember hearing someone saying, oh, my gosh, she's dead. >> the crew scrambling for their lives, too late. the director that had to get the shot. the assistant that died dodging the train. for the first time, her parents at the scene of the crime. plus, later, could the body count grow for robert durst?

all-new developments, a teenage girl missing. is durst connected? do you think it's possibly that he's guilty of more than three murders? >> here now, elizabeth vargas. >> good evening, david is away tonight. imagine what it's like to see death approaching. 37 rail road cars barreling towards you. you're about to see it now, incredible video released last week. after this story, you may never watch a movie the same way again. here's chris connelly. >> reporter: here, in the town of jesup, an historic legal confrontation between the state of georgia and an independent film director, randall miller, accused along with three other producers and crew supervisors, of involuntary manslaughter. >> mr. johnson, are you ready to proceed? >> reporter: just last week a courtroom showdown with all of hollywood watching to determine if randall miller would become

the first director in the history of the movie business to go to jail for a death on the set. specifically, this set, this outdoor location just five miles away a century old train trestle where on february 20th, 2014, a movie's first scene would quickly turn into a place of real life horror. >> i just kept saying over and >> i just kept saying over and over -- "lord help us, god help us, lord help us." >> reporter: captured on this 17-second video first revealed in court, members of a film crew running for their lives as a locomotive bears down on them. and on that crew, this young woman, filled with bright promise, who would suffer an all but unimaginable fate for doing the job she loved.

>> she fell in love with the camera. >> reporter: she was sarah jones. raised in south carolina without showbiz connections. she earned her film crew stripes during an internship in charleston on "army wives." as her parents richard and elizabeth remember. why do you think she was drawn to the camera department? >> it's the challenge of it for the most part, it's a man's world. and i think that was a little bit of a challenge to her. >> the competition. >> reporter: sarah jones would become a camera assistant, the last sight the camera would see before a scene began. for multiple seasons on "the vampire diaries." such stars as nina dobrev and ian somerhalter knew sarah well. >> sarah, first time i saw her she was literally right in front of my face. she was doing the slate, so you couldn't help but notice sarah jones. you just always wanted to be around her. >> she always had a smile on her face. and was just the uber

professional. >> reporter: even on the vacations she loved, sarah jones liked setting up her shots just so. >> she always was up for anything. she wanted to do bigger things, go to new countries, work on features and get her name out there. >> reporter: sarah took her own fateful path, taking a camera assistant gig based out of savannah on the movie "midnight rider." based on the memoir by gregg allman of the allman brothers, starring oscar winner william hurt, "midnight rider" would be an independent film. written, produced and directed by this man, randall miller. >> sarah mentioned to me that it is a low budget film and she was a little bit surprised that some of the people did not have the level of expertise that she expected.

>> reporter: on february 20th, cast and crew drove to this location in doctortown, georgia. among those arriving were sarah and hair stylist joyce gilliard. >> i was told that it wasn't actual principal photography. the actual day we were supposed to start shooting was going to be that monday. >> reporter: but once they got there, the crew realized randall miller wanted to shoot a full scene. a dream sequence in which gregg allman, from his hospital bed, sees his late brother, guitarist duane allman, across the bridge. shooting began on the side of the tracks. then, after two trains passed by, it came time to set up for the day's money shot, 30 feet above the water. according to one of our witnesses, randall miller said, "move the bed up on to the tracks," after the two trains had come by. >> a hospital bed, laying across the tracks, not running with the tracks, but across the tracks.

>> reporter: beau giannakopolous, the photographer on the set, recalls that it was the star who dared to ask the most important question. >> there was concern from william and he did voice that concern. he asked if another train came, how much time would we have to get off the tracks? we would have approximately 60 seconds. >> i was, more or less, "60 seconds to get off the track?" and i started praying. i'm mad at myself because i didn't say something. >> reporter: there was no on-set medic. there were no railroad officials present. two takes of the scene were in the can. then, just before 4:30 pm -- >> that's when they, uh, they yelled that there was a train coming. and there was sort of a pause. >> and i saw the train. and you just immediately started running. >> reporter: with two

locomotives and 37 freight cars, the train was barreling down the track at an estimated 57 miles per hour. >> i saw the light of that train, it was like the train was right there. so you had seconds to figure out what you were going to do. >> reporter: cast and crew had to run toward the oncoming train along this narrow pathway to save their lives. this extraordinary video captures the scream of the fast approaching train's horn as randall miller and other crew members frantically try to yank the hospital bed off the tracks. only to see it fall apart. >> it seemed to be so far away and all of a sudden right there. it was almost like a explosion. >> when i realized that i couldn't get to land, that's when i ran to the side, and held

onto the iron girder. and i prayed that i didn't get hit by the train. the pressure from the wind from the train was so strong, that holding onto the girder, i wasn't able to, it pulled me off. >> reporter: the train struck joyce gilliard's left arm after smashing into the hospital bed. joyce closed her eyes. >> i couldn't believe what was happening. i thought about dying and my family getting that call. >> reporter: the train's impact had snapped a bone in joyce's left arm. blood poured from the wound. joyce opened her eyes once more. >> sarah was the first person i saw. she was lying on the side of the tracks dead. you didn't know it was her.

you didn't know it was her. >> i received a phone call from one of the, her friends. she said, sarah's no longer here. i said, "you mean as in dead?" she said, "yes, ma'am." >> it was rough, i mean, i, it took the wind out of me. very, very hard. >> reporter: sarah jones was 27 years old. hours later, the phone rang again. it was the director of "midnight rider." >> randall miller, called us that day. he was very upset. >> he was crying. >> he was nearly hysterical, and he was, he was saying i'm so, so sorry. he couldn't say much more than that. >> reporter: but why had randall miller allowed his crew to shoot on live tracks?

sarah jones' parents and police demand answers. did he have permission? >> he had been told, "don't go on those tracks," and he did anyway. >> reporter: and footage from a camera mounted on the locomotive shows another side of those last horrifying moments. and new footage obtained just hours ago as this movie turns real a scene the filmmakers never meant to shoot. stay with us. but i think women would rather curl up with their favorite man. but here's the thing: about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and remember, you only take it when you need it. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting

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terror on the continues. here's chris connelly. >> reporter: video obtained today by abc news captures the terror on the trestle during the shooting of the film "midnight rider." actor william hurt lies on a hospital bed until a yell that a train is coming. suddenly, cast and crew move quickly to get off the trestle and to move the bed as the train barrels towards them. a cameraman, hanging onto a girder, shooting off the bridge as part of the bed's railing is thrown off and the train roars across, its shadow playing on the trees below. then, with the train stopped on

the trestle, so little room to squeeze past, images of director randall miller and other stunned crew members just beginning to assess the nightmarish scene in front of them. >> at first, it was like a quiet, like people were in shock. i remember hearing somebody say, "oh, my gosh, she's dead." >> reporter: the horrifying news that 27-year-old camera assistant sarah jones had been killed by a train on the set of the film "midnight rider" reached her good friends on "the vampire diaries" just a few hours after it happened. >> and i got the call and we sat in the car, going to set and it was just pure shock. >> she just left too soon, she, she -- she would have been -- yeah, it was too soon. >> i was angry, really angry.

>> reporter: immediately after the accident, investigators sought to figure out who had failed to protect the "midnight rider" crew. police questioning producer jay sedrish about shooting on active train tracks. >> of course, our question was, "did you have permission?" we got that, "well, it's complicated," answer. >> reporter: gregg allman's memoir began with a scene on a bridge but never mentioned railroad tracks. that was randall miller's addition in the screenplay that he wrote. and in this clip, he reads aloud. >> exterior. train track. his hospital bed is in the middle of a train track. >> reporter: from the start, csx was adamant that "midnight rider" would not be allowed to shoot on any tracks that it owned. this january 27th, 2014, email stating, "csx does not permit filming on our property." later, at miller's behest, the "midnight rider" production would specifically seek to shoot here. and in this email, sent to

location manager charley baxter on the morning of the shoot, a railroad representative again refuses to grant the film permission to shoot on its tracks. >> to me, those emails were extremely clear that they did not have permission to be on the tracks. >> reporter: and yet, it was there that cast and crew assembled on the afternoon of february 20th without baxter in attendance, as he noted in a deposition. >> randy knew i wasn't going to go if we didn't have permission. >> how do you know that? >> because he told me. >> he told you what? >> that they were going to film by the trestle whether they had permission from csx or not. >> reporter: they began filming by the trestle and then, at miller's direction, on it. miller's attorney, ed garland, asserts that his client had been told the tracks posed no risk. >> randy miller had no perception of danger and was relying on his team that had never failed him that he was in a safe place. he'd been told there were just

two trains and those had gone. >> reporter: but in fact, the "midnight rider" production had no way of knowing when a train might be coming, as railroad safety expert and film consultant art miller notes. >> there is no freight train schedule i can rely on to make sure there'll be no train on my track. >> it's a day to day thing. there's not such a thing as a freight train schedule. that approximates what, say, a major airline may publish. >> reporter: jeff harris is the attorney who's filed a lawsuit on behalf of sarah jones' parents. >> i think they said, well, you know, we don't have actual permission but ultimately we're just going to try to steal this shot. >> reporter: if so, it would apparently not be the first time randall miller had stolen a shot. take this subway scene from his 2013 movie "cbgb," a scene he brought up in this panel discussion. >> you are not allowed to shoot in new york subways. you know that. you're not allowed to. >> there were absolutely no rules against what he did.

and all he did was just take a camera without a bunch of lights and film some small shots. >> reporter: the mta in new york sees things differently, though, with multiple requirements for any shooting in the subway. on "midnight rider," the consequences of pushing the limits would prove deadly. >> they thought they could make up their own rules. they pushed it too far. >> reporter: how does that make you feel? that they thought they could make up their own rules? >> the audacity to put someone else's life in, in such danger. >> they wanted to get the shot so, whatever it took to get the shot is what they did. the entire crew was put in a situation where we all had to basically run for our lives. >> reporter: it's true, as shown by this startling evidence taken by a camera mounted inside csx q12519. it shows the "midnight rider"

crew racing off the bridge, as the train that would need a mile of track to stop, rapidly approaches the bed that's been placed across the rails. look again and listen as the dramatic scene unfolds. 26 seconds before impact, the engineer starts to blare the horn continuously. members of the cast and crew flee to safety. three seconds before impact, it's too late to get the bed off the tracks. actors william hurt and wyatt russell along with two crew members scramble to make it off the trestle.ore pact, people cover their ears, clinging to the bridge for their lives. on impact, the bed becomes a deadly weapon. >> the train hits the bed, and the bed flies up, and apparently a portion of the hospital bed strikes sarah and pushes her into the train. >> reporter: hair stylist joyce gilliard suffered a compound fracture of her left arm. she's had to have a plate put in

and is also suing the producers, the railroad company and others. >> it's not just my arm that was hurt. i suffered such a traumatic experience seeing my co-worker, friend, lose her life because of someone else's negligence. >> reporter: up next -- in the hot seat in court and on video, the man at the center of the sarah jones tragedy. producer/director randall miller confronted with different questions about just what happened that day and giving the same answer three times. >> unfortunately, that's not my job. >> do you know where anybody was down that track before the accident occurred? >> again, that's not my job. >> you didn't ask csx how many trains were coming down that trestle, did you? >> again, that's not my job. ♪

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sarah jones was doing her job, part of the "midnight rider" crew, instructed to place their equipment and a metal bed on these railroad tracks only to see a train coming towards them at 57 miles per hour and smashing into the bed. >> the bed was still on the track, the front of the train hit the bed. the debris of the bed is what caused most of the injuries. >> reporter: the shrapnel hit her and caused her to knock her into the train. >> wayne county 911. >> can you get my location where i am? we need an ambulance. someone got hit by a train. >> reporter: seven crew members suffered injuries in the accident. sarah jones lost her life. it's clear that certainly the producers and director messed up real bad. >> it was a live track.

there were tracks elsewhere in the vicinity that were not live tracks that could have been used. >> reporter: she's right. "20/20" found this train trestle just a few hours away where, for a small fee, an on-site railroad official shut down train traffic so we could film safely. joyce gilliard was recuperating when producer/director randall miller paid her a visit. >> he came to my hospital room a couple days after the tragedy happened. he didn't say anything, he just cried. he just cried. >> reporter: in july of 2014, the wayne county d.a. charged randall miller and three other members of the "midnight rider" team, producer jay sedrish, first assistant director hilary schwartz and producer jody savin, randall miller's spouse, with trespassing and involuntary manslaughter. each pleaded not guilty. >> if they'd have just followed

the e-mails or followed the safety requirements by the film industry, sarah jones would be alive today. >> reporter: earlier that year, in april, randall miller had plans to resume production on "midnight rider." gregg allman had seen enough and sued to prevent that, compelling randall miller to testify on video about the tragedy and saying one phrase three times. >> did you even employ anyone to go down the railroad track maybe three or four miles down to warn people when the train was coming? >> unfortunately, that's not my job. >> do you know where anybody was down that track before the accident occurred? >> again, that's not my job. >> you didn't ask csx how many trains were coming down that trestle, did you? >> again, that's not my job. >> that is his job. he's the director. now, the first assistant director is responsible in the industry, traditionally, for safety. but randall miller's ultimate job is to make sure that what he's doing as director is not

putting his crew, or the cast for that matter, in jeopardy. and he did not do that. >> i heard that if the train were to come that we would have at least 60 seconds. >> and you actually believed that you could get a metal bed off the track, and the people off the track in 60 seconds? >> well, i didn't. yes. >> reporter: those final seconds in slow motion show actor wyatt russell running with his guitar as a cameraman hustles toward safety, and actor william hurt, making his way to the other side of the trestle, where randall miller had put him. >> did you have a written permission, sir, to be on the train track, is that what you are telling this court on your oath? >> we had permission from rayonier to be there. >> reporter: the company, rayonier, owned the land adjoining the tracks and the trestle bridge, but did not own the tracks themselves or the trestle bridge where the deadly shoot occurred.

>> did you see a written permission from csx to put those people on that track? that's a simple question. >> i did not do the permits. >> you didn't see any permit before you asked those people to get on the train track? >> i did not see the permits, no. i was in the middle of the track, and i almost died. >> reporter: that, at least, is true, as the end of this video shows. randall miller trying to move the bed and then falling onto the tracks as the train comes near, rescued just seconds from death by the woman shooting this very footage. >> the train seemed to be so far away and then all of a sudden just right there. randall fell onto to the track, and so i dropped my camera and grabbed him. >> reporter: randall miller's life was saved. it was 27-year-old sarah jones who did die on these tracks. the people who made poor choices that day need to be held fully

accountable, what they did. >> reporter: when we come back, a heartbreaking journey up the river with sarah jones' parents. and at last, justice for sarah. don't go away. you've got some work to do! if you need me, i'll be cleaning the gutters. today, the house won't know what hit it. show the garage who's boss. check. put a new shine on the family wheels. check. tame the jungle you call a yard. check. nice work guys. you earned this back. oh, who's jeremy...and he texts a lot. a new mobile plan. done. with everything you need for spring, at walmart's low prices you can trust every day, what project will you take on? ifyou may be muddlingble withrough allergies.nger... try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. muddle no more™.

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we continue with terror on the trestle. once more, chris connelly. >> i'm not trying to be a masochist at all, but i want to see that train. >> reporter: along the muddy waters of georgia's altamaha river grow spanish moss and cypress trees. for the first time, richard and elizabeth jones have come to the place where their daughter sarah died, floating beneath the century-old trestle when a train rumbles across. >> i want to experience it. i want to see what it's like.

>> oh, my god. how fast is that going? >> reporter: they have come in search of a kind of closure. yet this day also brings painful reminders of their loss. >> they couldn't get out of the way. >> the arrogance of someone putting my baby on the track and the fear she must have felt. i can't imagine. >> reporter: seven crew members injured by a passing train. sarah jones, dead. and one more shock -- the footage from that day. would be fully edited into a movie scene by the "midnight rider" team to preserve a tax credit, randall miller's lawyers say. a dream sequence in which the

main character chooses not to follow his deceased brother to a premature death. these shots, a stark contrast to what would take place just moments afterwards -- chaos, horror, and the death of sarah jones. now hollywood awaited a bombshell trial, in jesup, georgia, population 10,000. if convicted, "midnight rider"'s writer-producer-director, randall miller, along with three of his associates, stood to serve as much as ten years in prison. yet on march 9th, as the trial is set to begin, the story of "midnight rider" takes its final, unexpected turn. randall miller takes a plea. with the camera rolling. >> will you outline the plea agreement for the defendant and the court? >> the defendant will be sentenced to a ten-year term. he will serve two years in custody in the county jail. he will pay a fine of $20,000. >> reporter: and one other

notable proviso. >> he will not serve as a director, first assistant director or a supervisor responsible for the safety of other people for the entire ten years. >> reporter: then judge harrison, speaking directly to randall miller -- >> is it still your wish to enter a plea of guilty? >> yes, it is, sir. >> and are you in fact guilty of criminal trespass as charged in count one and involuntary manslaughter as charged in count two of the indictment? >> yes, your honor. >> reporter: but before the judge imposes the plea-bargained sentence, poignant moments, victim impact statements from the jones family. >> my dear sarah, there is a deep sadness in my heart, a hole through the middle of my soul. a beautiful human being and a bright light source was stripped away from what, i believe, was rooted in selfishness. >> sarah always gave you her better side, her uncontested presence of who she was, and you knew where she stood on most any subject. she was genuine.

she was down-to-earth. >> reporter: then, with some reluctance, the judge accepts the plea. >> the plea may be entered. >> reporter: randall miller becomes the first director in the history of the movies to go to jail for a death on a set. >> it was a very big deal because in california that they're invincible. it showed that directors and producers can be held responsible if a crew member dies. >> reporter: the others also plead out with no jail time. randall miller is taken into custody to begin serving his time, blowing a kiss to his wife jody savin who sees the charges against her dropped. >> it is him accepting responsibility. and him standing up and saying, "if a message needs to be sent, i am willing to be the one. because in the last analysis, i

didn't make sure that everything was working right." >> it sends a message, frankly, that if you do not respect those that you're in charge of, that you may end up behind bars. >> reporter: randall miller declined to speak with "20/20." but in a statement he said he pled guilty in part -- "out of respect for the jones family and to not put them through a difficult trial. i am heartbroken over this." >> it's important that the life of someone who did not deserve to die stands for something, and in this case i think that sarah's death will save other people. >> reporter: sarah jones' death galvanized members of the filmmaking community who vowed to again make safety the top priority. >> never again let someone's

daughter die. >> and i give a lot of credit for sarah jones' family and others in the industry who have really come forward to try to make that happen. people will not forget sarah jones. >> we are -- >> we are -- >> sarah jones. >> reporter: the industry sarah so loved, to which she dedicated and lost her life has responded. putting out safety psas. countless movies and tv shows using slates like the ones she once held that mark every shot with a tribute to sarah. nowhere is her memory more cherished than on "the vampire diaries" set, where the first shot of the day is called "the jonesy" as a safety reminder. >> here we go. jonesy b-mark. >> reporter: where safety briefings like this one are a common occurrence. where her loss remains unfathomable and images of her remain unforgettable. as star matthew davis recalls. >> the last day i ever saw sarah we were, we'd rented some bikes

and were just, just bombing around, uh, amsterdam, and had just the best time together. i feel as blessed as i do that my memories of her are, are so positive, and so wonderful and >> we feel so blessed. to have had a daughter, to have had her for 27 years was wonderful. >> so, do you think safety on the trestle was the responsibility of the director? lets us know, use #abc2020. we'll be right back. next, robert durst, just jinxed with bad luck? >> i think he's an easy target. >> or, a new twist. is he connected to this missing teenager? >> to me, what he was saying, i

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they are the five words everyone is talking about this week. "killed them all, of course." is it possible that robert durst did it? and yet another cold case began heating up two days ago. >> reporter: tonight, in the quiet town of eureka, california, one family is feeling something they haven't felt in years. >> they are hoping there really is some hope. >> reporter: it was here back in 1997 that 17-year-old karen mitchell disappeared. in the intervening years, her case has gone colder than the waters of the northern california coast. >> we'd all like to think that maybe she could still come home to us. that probably isn't the case. >> reporter: but now, new light is shining on the case. all part of the latest twists in the white-hot story of the

week -- the macabre melodrama of robert durst. >> tonight, robert durst is behind bars. >> reporter: yes, it's been an extraordinary week for robert durst. and given what passes for "ordinary" with this man, that's saying something. >> you're a multi-millionaire. you belong to one of the most powerful families in the country. and you're stealing identities? >> reporter: dressing as a woman. >> dressing as a woman. >> reporter: hanging in a homeless shelter. >> chopping up bodies. >> reporter: pretty weird. as we go air, durst, the son of a real estate mogul, is housed in this less than prime location -- a prison equipped with a mental health facility outside new orleans. but is he crazy? how would you describe him? >> psychotic. >> reporter: or crazy like a fox? is he crazy? >> oh, no, ma'am. robert durst is not the least bit crazy. >> reporter: his trip from the penthouse to the big house is a saga which spans decades and crisscrosses the country with a

trail of dead bodies. so, it's no surprise that filmmaker andrew jarecki decided to make durst the subject of a six-hour documentary. >> this whole time i've said nothing to nobody about anything. >> reporter: the film documents durst's connections to three people close to him who wind up dead or missing -- his first wife, kathie, who disappeared in new york in 1982. his close friend, susan berman, murdered in her beverly hills home in 2000. and his neighbor, morris black, shot, dismembered and dumped into the galveston bay in 2001. to date, durst has not served a single day in prison for murder. >> he's gotten away with it because of money. he's not going to get away with it this time. >> reporter: last weekend, as "the jinx" crescendoed to its grand finale, a new chapter begins. new orleans police arrest durst on a warrant issued in los angeles for berman's murder. >> the poor guy is off balance,

possibly very evil, so when he was arrested, i felt relief for >> reporter: he'd checked into the jw marriott under the alias everett ward, allegedly carrying an illegal handgun and a bag of his beloved marijuana. on sunday, the tempest reaches gale force. "the jinx" finale airs on hbo, and the filmmakers connect a letter durst had written to berman a year before her death with a second letter written to police explaining where berman's "cadaver" could be found. both letters penned in similar handwriting, both with the identical misspelling of "beverly hills." >> want to tell me which one you didn't write? >> no. >> reporter: after that moment, he's heard muttering in the

bathroom. >> killed them all. of course. >> reporter: but his enemies, who now number in the millions, might pause before popping the champagne. he's faced long odds before, not been convicted. >> we came here to waive jurisdiction and go back to california and let's get it on. >> there's a tremendous amount of relief that he's off the streets. >> reporter: judge susan criss presided over durst's 2003 trial in the morris black case, which ended in a stunning acquittal on the murder charges. >> we find the defendant, robert durst, not guilty. >> reporter: deguerin and the other defense attorneys convinced the jury that durst killed black in self defense, then dismembered him and disposed of the body because he was afraid no one would believe him.

but judge criss says the butchering of the body suggested durst had previous experience. did it look like somebody who was doing this in a panic? >> this looked like someone had done this before. and the medical examiner testified that the person who cut this body up knew what kind of instrument to use on what bone and what muscle in what part of the body. >> reporter: do you think it's possible that robert durst is guilty of more than three murders? >> well, i do believe that he's guilty of more than three murders just because i saw what he did to the body of morris black. he had to learn how to do that somewhere. >> reporter: now, the fbi is getting involved. >> we're doing a number of things to run down leads. that's one of the powers of the fbi. we're everywhere. >> reporter: remember, for all the focus on durst's movements during kathryn durst's disappearance, susan berman's murder and morris black's butchering, there remain yawning gaps where his whereabouts are less well-known. what was the itinerant loner, prone to using aliases and disguises, up to all that time?

>> he's a serial murderer. >> reporter: jeannine pirro, now host of fox news channel's "justice with judge jeanine," is the former westchester district attorney who tried, unsuccessfully, to build a case against durst for the disappearance of his wife. >> this guy lies every time he opens his mouth. >> reporter: matt birk beck is an author and investigative journalist whose book on durst was allegedly found by police when they searched the houston condominium. >> he says, "killed them all." to me, what he was saying was i didn't just kill kathie durst. i didn't just kill susan berman. i didn't just kill morris black. i killed many others. >> reporter: which brings us back to eureka, california, the pacific coast town just down the highway from trinidad, where we know durst spent time in the late '90s. in fact, he was here, just days before susan berman was executed in beverly hills. tonight, the question -- could young karen mitchell have been one of his victims too? patty weber is a mitchell family friend who is speaking on the

family's behalf. >> karen was very sweet, very quiet, very unassuming. >> durst visited the shoe store where she had worked at. it was her aunt's shoe store. >> we know that he did come into annie's shoe store and karen was very often there. >> he had gone there several times. one time, he was dressed in drag. >> reporter: police say karen mitchell was last seen getting into a blue car with a man depicted in this sketch. >> and then you take into account this composite, which is the spitting image of robert durst. he's got these wide-rimmed glasses, which he stopped wearing after i reported on this in 2003. >> reporter: through his lawyers, durst denies all wrongdoing and just hours ago they filed papers to get their client released. >> i think he's an easy target and everyone is piling on. >> reporter: so, for now, everyone will have to wait quite a while longer for the answers. the berman trial in los angeles is still far off and durst's defense team will most certainly challenge the handwriting

analysis and of course the "jinx" mutterings. now must-see tv on hbo. >> killed them all. of course. >> reporter: you're a judge -- will that tape be admissible in a court of law? >> i believe that that tape will be admissible for a lot of reasons. this was a -- he wasn't coerced. there was no expectation of privacy. >> reporter: he's in a bathroom. >> but he's got a mic on. he contacted them and offered to tell them his story on tape. >> reporter: while durst is enjoying the hospitality of the state of louisiana here on suicide watch, his most immediate legal challenges seem almost trivial. the felony charges of possession of a firearm with controlled substances at the time of his arrest. ironically, it's possible that those alleged crimes might keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. >> i think he's hurt a lot of people.

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